When composer
Marvin Hamlisch
and his wife,
Terre Blair,
purchased a brick Colonial on a hilltop in Bedford, N.Y., in 2011, the two had planned to spend their golden years together in the house, said Ms. Blair. Instead, Mr. Hamlisch died in 2012 at age 68 after a brief illness.

Now, she said, the house is full of bittersweet memories. "It reminds me of what he didn't get to enjoy," she added, and so she has made the decision to put the home on the market. The four-bedroom, five-bathroom home will be listed this week for $7.95 million with
David Turner
of
Houlihan Lawrence.

The roughly 5,000-square-foot house, built in 1968, sits on about 4 acres on a plateau atop Mount Aspetong, with views stretching from Connecticut to New Jersey, Mr. Turner said.

Mr. Hamlisch, known for the Broadway musical "A Chorus Line" and songs such as "The Way We Were," was one of the few people to win Oscars, Emmys, Grammys, a Tony and a Pulitzer Prize. A native New Yorker, Mr. Hamlisch "thought a chipmunk was wildlife," his wife said, but when the couple saw the views from this property, "it took your breath away."

The couple purchased the house in 2011 for $2.75 million, according to public records. At first, they were planning to use it as a weekend home, but Mr. Hamlisch "got out here and said, 'I'm not going back—this is the most beautiful place in the world,' " Ms. Blair said. They sold their Manhattan apartment, then set to work gut-renovating the house. Her husband—"the ultimate foodie"— worked especially hard on designing the kitchen, she added.

The house has a two-tiered stone terrace, a screened-in porch and a music room where Mr. Hamlisch's baby-grand piano and his awards are on display, she said. He found the views from that room inspiring, she said, and from there wrote the score for the movie "Behind the Candelabra," and the song "While I Still Have the Time" for the musical "The Nutty Professor."